Floor Models 2.0

The first "new" Floor Models song in 30 years, is now officially finished.

"Letter From Liverpool." Written by Gerry Devine and Andy Pasternack.

Performed by [left to right] me (on bass and keyboards), Andy (12-string guitar, sampled at the fade-out), Gerry (vocals and acoustic guitar, recorded two years ago at his home studio), and Glen Robert Allen (on drums and percussion). Engineered by Brent McLachlan at 30 Below Studio. With special guest Flo Mos J.D. Goldberg on Gretch 12-string and Ronnie D'Addario on harmony vocals.



And a special thanks to Glen Bob, without whose encouragement we wouldn't have pulled this off.

Okay, I'm verklempt now.

Oh, and the rest of the LFL mini-album has been mastered; three other cool vault tracks (that didn't make the Floor Your Love album cut) plus Gerry's original acoustic demo of the title song. The plan is still to get it out before the end of the year -- pray for us.

Still More Updated Updates

Went into the studio last Tuesday night and 95 percent finished the title track from the forthcoming five-song Floor Models EP.

I'm around the moon over how great this sounds; we've scheduled another session to add some discrete background vocals (provided by our pal Ronnie D'Addario, who has a long history with the Floor Models) and tweak the mix, but essentially this is it, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank my once and future bandmates for making work on the track such a pleasant experience. As I've said before, going in I wasn't convinced we could pull this off, but boy....

And I think Andy would have liked it.

In any case, once its done we get to work on the actual EP package; Steve Schwartz, who mastered and edited Floor Your Love, will do similar yeoman's service on the other four tracks, and my beautiful and brilliant girlfriend will be finalizing the cover art.

I'll keep you posted.

Updated Updates

Work on our forthcoming EP Letter from Liverpool continues apace. The track listing has been finalized, and the vault material has been re-mastered to a faretheewell.

Meanwhile, here we are in the studio last week, working on the title song -- our first "new" track in thirty years.



I gotta say -- when our pal and honorary Floor Model J.D. Goldberg first chimed-in with Andy-esque electric 12-string, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. After all that time, it was us.

The track should be finished in a couple of weeks; hopefully I'll be able to get the EP out by the fall, although these things always take longer than you plan. In any case, it should be worth the wait.

All the News That Fits We Print

So I got a royalty check from CD Baby yesterday, which means Floor Your Love is still, inexplicably, selling, and ain't that a kick in the pants.

More to the point, when I looked at our account over there, I discovered that a physical copy of the CD had been purchased by somebody on the Continent just the other week. So I e-mailed to ask a) who they were; b) how did they hear about the record; and c) if they liked it, would they be interested in a free copy of the improved re-release version on Australia's ZERO HOUR RECORDS?

Here's the quite wonderful reply I got.

Hi Steve:

So great to hear about you.

Well, my name is Joaquin Lopez and I live in Madrid (Spain).

By pure chance I got to your GREAT music via CD BabY distribution. I checked the samples and I take notice about your great power pop and topnotch Rickenbacker sound. As well, the cover design and album title were a gimmick/ homage to The Yardbirds' "For your love" album.

The band's attitude were very close to legendary names like early Byrds, Searchers, Flamin' Groovies or The Records. And the tracks "Let her go" and "Are you here or are you gone" are classic stuff. But the whole album is terrific.

Thanks for your kind offer.
Sincerely from a Spanish fan and friend.

Needless to say, this made me completely verklempt, and I dispatched him a copy of Floor Your Love Mark II pronto.

Meanwhile, here's a rough of the cover (courtesy of my beautiful and brilliant art director girlfriend) of that forthcoming EP I mentioned previously....

...and a teaser track (note the sitar samples from The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows.")



And, of course -- thank you, Joaquin. You made my week. Hell, so far you've made my year.

The Band That Wouldn't Die

A couple of quick updates.

1. The juggernaut that is Floor Your Love (the CD) rolls on: CD Baby informs me that so far there have been four digital downloads already this month. Even more amazing, we sold an actual physical CD to some idiot perceptive fellow in Madrid, Spain this very day. Why we are huge in Spain is a mystery that may, perhaps, never be solved.

2. I have decided that since the masses are clamoring for the Floor Models, I am going to compile and release an EP of previously unreleased material for our own P.O.J. label.

The disc will be titled Letter From Liverpool, after the gorgeous song Gerry and Andy started working on back in the day, and which Gerry finished last year; it's about us, obviously, and it never fails to get me all misty. Gerry's version is just acoustic guitar and vocal -- Glenn and I may or may not put electric guitars, bass and drums on it; more news on that will be forthcoming as that develops. Other candidates are a great live version (from JPs,in excellent stereo) of Andy's "The Hand That's Strong," an Andy solo acoustic version of "You'll Come Around" (from WBAI-FM) and Andy's psychedelic remix of "Fade Into Grey," which samples the sitars from The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." We also have a great studio take of Gerry's "Sittin' Tight" with killer keyboards by moi; there are some technical issues with the surviving tape, but hopefully we can resolve them.

Once again, my beautiful and brilliant girlfriend will be doing the art direction -- we've already got a rough cover design -- and I'll be posting details of the work in progress in a timely fashion. Stay tuned.